3089 v0.77a: Enemy Towers, Sound & Graphical Improvements Thread - 3089

Hey all,

There is a new building to find, and this one will be a bit harder to get in & out of! At the top is a leader, if you can reach & defeat him, you will be rewarded.

I revamped lots of the sound system, tweaking volumes & adding back in a natural reverb effect. Things should sound much better now.

I also did many things to improve and polish the graphics. First, I added 3089 application icons to all of the windows -- no more default Java or LWJGL icons anymore. I've tweaked the terrain texture to be less monotone, other colors should mix in to make it more lively. I also realized a nasty bug on building textures: only 1 texture was ever being picked from the pool of 12. You should see lots of different textures used for buildings now!

Some exploits have been fixed -- thank you guys for reporting them! You shouldn't be able to program your way to stardom or work around part level limitations when putting items together.

I've had some other interesting requests in the forum I want to follow up on. Also, I've posted some rules about modding & making 3089 videos here:

Indiedb.com

You can also read the complete version history here: 3089game.wordpress.com

OK, back to work!
- Phr00t

I rise my programming to 10 points. I noticed the first time I program a chip, its rarity is 91%, then always 75%. Is this intended?

You must have been programming a blank chip the first time, which is easier.

EDIT: v0.78a will be coming, was a crash in stealing (also made a few other quick stealing balance adjustments)

v0.78a - there is something wrong with this version, I can see "Programming" skill on chips...

Are they new chips with programming, or old ones? Only newly generated chips should have no Programming stat...

well that was very quick! Keep up teh amazing work phr00t, I can't wait to see of one of those towers in the distance. I doubt I'll last long enough to see the inside, but I can always scope it from miles away lol

EDIT: FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU I'm seeing it to... fixing...

EDIT2: The "CannotHave" property wasn't being saved, so you could get "Programming" on a chip after a save/load...

Game looks definitely better this version. Two other changes are also noticeable:

15. Enemy robots will now react quicker to obvious, loud & visible threats
18. Increased your visibility when running, flying or using a hoverboard

That's good, more fun. Hard to tell how it will impact "you can't be attacked" missions, but I managed to accomplish them without experiencing any problem (i.e. I was attacked when I felt I shouldn't, nothing like that).

Enemy towers - I found and beat one of those. What happened at the top floor was... unexpected. Still wonder if it's bug or feature, or accident . In short, very positive gaming experience. Don't want to spoil, so I'm brief.

Whoa, you put the towers in. Definitely interested to find one.... aint happened yet.

A couple of quick things before I forget though:

Quest stations seem to have reverted back to the way they were before, and are spitting out 95% stealth missions. I've had to cycle the things quite often to get them to give even just one non-stealth type. In theory, this could be bad luck, but.... generally I'll try out 3 or 4 nearby quest stations before I resort to cycling one of them.

Also, hoverboards: These need to be faster, I think? I'm finding them useless right now..... my current character can RUN that fast. The board isnt actually any faster.

When it comes to transport in general though, I find that piloting skill is an absolute necessity for every character I've made. A couple of reasons for this:

1. It's the only thing that's decently fast

2. It's the only way to get around without drowning in blue robots and ships and things. Using other methods simply creates unavoidable, large-scale fights over and over, or just gets me killed.

It seems to take quite a bit of points though to use any ships that arent the ones in the starting area.

Also, I'm not sure if it's a bug or a balance thing, but I had a "protect" quest where the game suddenly spat out a full 9 enemy bots and 2 ships; needless to say, that quest ended REALLY fast. Even if I'd had very strong equipment it would have been impossible to take them all out before the quest target got melted.

No other bugs or things just yet!

EDIT:

Ok, so I kinda HAD found the towers, I just didnt know it. It took me a moment to notice the large funky looking buildings on my map, despite that there were like 4 of them. HOW I didnt notice them..... I have no idea.

Very cool so far. These came out pretty much like I'd hoped they would. And I swear they somehow dont LOOK all that tall, but.... there's quite the maze in there. I think the size is just about right. The only suggestions I can think of would be some sort of teleport device on the top floor that activates after the "triumph" bit happens, that just pops you back down near the entrance, and perhaps at some point add a couple of enemy types totally unique to these buildings. Overall though these are great, an excellent way to get more money and some stat points and plenty dangerous for that. They also definitely have a much different feel than any other area or mission. Different tactics can be necessary here and the structure can make battles complicated.

I got bugs for ya though: The "triumph" thing actually happened 3 seperate times on the final floor from 3 different robots.

I also had it happen once when I wasnt in or near a tower; I was in the middle of the desert with like no buildings around, I popped a random robot, and "TOWER TRIUMPH!!!" and some free points. Pretty sure that's not supposed to happen.

Also, an exploit: Diving into a hatch deletes all robots in the area. Can be used to escape enemies that way.

Oh, and I'm not sure if this is a bug or just the spawner being random, but when I finally exited the tower, there were LOTS of blue UFOs and surveyors in the area. So very many. I'd never seen that many of either in one place. I kinda wish I'd gotten a screenshot of them. There wasnt a single other type of blue bot in the area, and there wasnt any orange ones either. The hatch exploit there actually was figured out when I was trying to get away from them without getting vaporized by like 10 beams at once.

Excellent update overall!

Edited by: Misery55

Quest stations seem to have reverted back to the way they were before, and are spitting out 95% stealth missions. I've had to cycle the things quite often to get them to give even just one non-stealth type. In theory, this could be bad luck, but.... generally I'll try out 3 or 4 nearby quest stations before I resort to cycling one of them.

I haven't changed the source for that, so it shouldn't have changed... 95% stealth missions seems awfully high, don't think it was that high before.

Also, hoverboards: These need to be faster, I think? I'm finding them useless right now..... my current character can RUN that fast. The board isnt actually any faster.

The hoverboards are 20% faster than running. Also, you can go this fast even moderately burdened (you just won't accelerate as quickly).

When it comes to transport in general though, I find that piloting skill is an absolute necessity for every character I've made.

It depends on how you play. If you are trying to avoid conflict while traveling large distances, ships are the only thing that fits the bill. Grappling hooks & telelocators allow for quick movement & make you not as obvious as a target as the hoverboard, but you have to switch held weapons to use them.

The only suggestions I can think of would be some sort of teleport device on the top floor that activates after the "triumph" bit happens, that just pops you back down near the entrance

If you killed the robots on your way up, they should still be gone on the way down. If you snuck your way up, you'll have to sneak your way down. Or, you can teleport back to your backup station & avoid it all.

The "triumph" thing actually happened 3 seperate times on the final floor from 3 different robots.

I also had it happen once when I wasnt in or near a tower; I was in the middle of the desert with like no buildings around, I popped a random robot, and "TOWER TRIUMPH!!!" and some free points. Pretty sure that's not supposed to happen.

I think I got this fixed in v0.81a.

Also, an exploit: Diving into a hatch deletes all robots in the area. Can be used to escape enemies that way.

I'm not sure this is an exploit, yet... hatches are meant to be a safe-haven in addition to a place to buy construction tools. If it is being abused too often, I may reduce the number of hatches that spawn...

when I finally exited the tower, there were LOTS of blue UFOs and surveyors in the area. So very many.

I do some funky spawning changes in towers to make sure they are well populated.. might have some odd side effects

Finally saw an enemy tower... from the outside of course, no way was I getting close to it on that build. They look looming and scary, I can't wait to bust inside one

YetiChow wrote: Finally saw an enemy tower... from the outside of course, no way was I getting close to it on that build. They look looming and scary, I can't wait to bust inside one

Can you post a screenshot of what one looks like on the overhead map? I really want to check one out

They don't look that much different from the overhead map. However, they are much bigger than normal buildings & they have a small spire at the top.

Just because there hasn't been any activity around here...

recap on how awesome v77a has been:

bosses are SCARY. They look like they might not be too bad, and you can fight them after the first couple of minutes, so you'd think they're not as bad as, say, a UFO or rollertank. WRONG. When those things let rip with missile launchers, you'll want every scrap of agility and cover you can muster up.

However, they are fairly well balanced fights and a lot of fun. My best trick is to lure them into water using a hoverboard, and then ride rings around them dodging the misslies and pummeling them with bullets. Of course, that's not an easy strategy to pull off all the time, but it shows that the bosses do have their weaknesses.

Stealth is more fun and more intuitive. Combined with the tweaks to stealing, all the recent work on stealth is paying off - the little things do add up, and even though it's still a difficult path to take it is a lot easier than it was before.

The new mechanic to have stuff you can actually use for sale? LOVE IT! It's a lot easier to build good weapons now, still a worthwhile challenge but never a bard, boring grind to get the right piece anymore. Great work on that one phr00t, it seems so logical in hindsight but that's the kind of small touch which makes this game so much fun

So yeah, now that I've had a chance to properly try out v77a, it looks beter and better

Hey YetiChow,

Glad you are enjoying the latest version, which is v0.87a

I'm hard at work getting multiplayer together. I hope to have a preview in a week or so... trying to make it as easy as possible to get people to join games together.